1. Field
The field of the disclosure relates generally to improving the speed and efficiency with which a health care facility currently having a doctor or physician with a particular specialty on-call may be located and identified.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently there is no centralized database or data bank which assists in finding specialists on a real-time basis to care for patients requiring emergency care. In general, if a hospital does not or cannot provide an emergency service which is required for a patient, then the hospital must, and may be legally obligated to, arrange for the patient to be transferred to a facility which can provide that care immediately. For example, in certain situations, the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) or other state or federal law may require a hospital to transfer a patient who comes to its emergency department suffering from an emergency medical condition to another hospital able to treat the patient. Searching for a hospital with a physician of a desired specialization to treat the emergency medical condition currently on call is now often done manually, where the hospital telephonically calls up hospitals in an attempt to identify another hospital or care facility with the required specialist currently on call. It can take an enormous amount of time and effort to locate such an alternate facility which can provide the needed care, and this lost time may be wasted to the detriment or death of the patient.